For nearly a year I had the pleasure of helping Danielle and her mom (her stepmom really but you would not know it, what a wonderful relationship they have and even dad made mention of it during his toast) and Dad pull together what I had no doubt was going to be a beautiful and fun celebration.

I had done wedding ceremonies at Island Hotel at their old ceremony area which is no longer there, but not done any at their only outdoor area for ceremonies the Cabana Patio, so this was my first and it turned out beautifully.

The cake picture does not do it any justice, but that cake was beautiful, the pastry chef at Island Hotel really puts his heart into every cake, love him.

From the beginning the colors were black and white and we went all the way, black linens/napkins (from Luxe Linens), chairs and dancefloor and with the off white draping we added around the room (by TMMPRO who also did the lighting, we stuck with amber to allow the candle light from the tables to stand out more) the florals were able to stand out. Beautiful job with the ceremony floral, draping and chandeliers by Flowers by Cina and in the ballroom too, lots of glass and candles, it was fabulous.

The pics above and below are a mix of mine and Jacqueline Kay Photography, love working with them. Thanks to Design Visage for keeping everyone on time, unlike a couple of weddings I did after this one who did not use them and put everything behind so brides ended up with very little of the photography they may have gone in hoping to get. We had Naples Strings for the ceremony and they moved to cocktails, so easy to work with, and to the team at Island with Deanna at the helm, we are lucky enough right now to be there once a month, and love being there, the banquet captains are fab and the hotel has such a great feel and because they don’t have a lot of ballroom space its like being at an exclusive/one wedding a day only venue/hotel, but not paying for it.

Wayne Foster Band did the mceeing and music, I LOED their grand piano that they brought in and put on the stage which is a feat in itself, not many bands do that, but let me add that it was covered in crystals, beautiful.

Then my new fave vendor from 2016, The Sugar Philosophers, Kim does a beautiful job, very elegant displays, our bride wanted this one colorful and it was. This table was the placecard table earlier, I love reusing that table.

So wonderful Ali had been in touch from the other side of the USA, New Jersey, and she wanted an OC wedding (I would say 70% of my brides are from out of state and a big group of those are from NY/east coast), in fact had seen Pelican Hill and wondered. So we went to contract without a location, we had a budget and that meant having to make some compromises to make it work if she wanted the location of her dreams. She was a bit hesitant so we ended up with estimates from a bunch of great LA hotels also, any of which I would have loved to see her wedding at. This is where a couple’s flexibility and the relationships your wedding planner has with hotel peeps can come together and miracles happen, groom and I have a big chat (I was actually in New Zealand at the time) and we were able to secure Pelican for them, yahooooo

Speaking of the groom, and this happens sometimes, they get really into how the cake looks or the flavors, he came up with the design for each tier, I came up with the cake floating on a bed of lush florals, and voila we had a focal point for the round room area.

Mother nature played a trick on us for this September wedding, there was no sign of the Pacific Ocean for all these folks who had flown in from the east coast, thank goodness they were all in the area for a few days so they did know it was there at some point!! But some of the pics with the sea haze/fog in the background were quite beautiful

I promise you there is an ocean out there, well at least for cocktails the ceremony area was their view/backdrop.

We came up with elements that a lot of their guests would not have seen, two different centerpieces, one very candely and the other lush/pretty, and of course who doesn’t love a floral chandelier. The pic above does not do this any justice, you had to be below looking up to realize how many flowers were in there and how beautiful it was. And if you look closely enough you will see the white grand piano left hand front of the ceremony area for the pianist to use, totally completed the whole ceremony look.

We draped the room, not because you have to but we wanted to and it does always transform a space and even for a large event can give the illusion of intimate. We do this a lot for my couples not from the OC and for some from the OC, the In N out run at the end of the night for food to go/take as you are leaving, always a hit.

Of course my fave, the 100 Dove release after the intro of B&G to all at the ceremony, something guests always talk about. And I love it when we have enough lawn to really go big on the aisle petal scroll, out the back. Above the view looking towards the rotunda and below the view from rotunda looking down the aisle back towards cocktail/ballroom area.

Its all in the details, that’s how people know you care and took time, the ceremony was live streamed for those guests not able to attend. We did my fave white glossy/seamless.decaled dancefloor, we actually used the hotel linens in the ballroom because they fit perfectly with our look, but we did rent La Tavola linens for the cocktail tables using an inspiration picture Ali had from the beginning, and she is not the first bride to use that particular picture with me, lol!!

Love this aerial view of the ceremony site from the drone and it really shows how there was no ocean to be seen!!! Crazy.

I don’t normally post people pics, but I thought this picture was so soft and really showed what Ali is about, family and love. This is where having everyone wear the palette of the wedding totally worked and it made me stop and notice. And, that fog in the background added to the whole effect, yes I know how to make lemonade out of lemons, for sure.

We pulled together a great vendor team for this one, thanks to Joe Latter for the pics above, Marc/The Emotion Picture Studio for video/drone/live streaming and for over 20 years we have done beautiful weddings together, Design Visage for beautifying the ladies, White Flite for the Dove release/perfectly timed as always, Flowers by Cina for orchestrating the vision we had on paper into reality, Chiavari chair rentals for the rotunda and ballroom draping-gotta love a chandelier in the rotunda. To TMMPRO for our chivaris/round dancefloor&decal and lighting, and to my fave band for many years who adjusted their line up to suit the broad range of music Ali wanted to be able to share with her guests, so easy to work with and they handled ceremony, cocktail and dancing music with ease, Full Spectrum, thank you Adam for being such a great partner and wonderful asset to any wedding celebration/memory for guests. Then we have the Pelican Hill Team, from Pam to Clancy to the wonderful team actually interacting with the guests on the day, classy and elegant as always.

Ahhh lovely Jenn, she knew what she liked and didn’t, so making decisions was quick and we pulled together the perfect vendor team/vision for her, and a reflection of her. Pretty, soft, romantic.

Thanks to Barnett Photography for the pics and being so great to work with, Parallel Media/video-we had quite a run for a few weeks together, Father Brian for always officiating a great ceremony, Design Visage for beautifying everyone and as always keeping things on time/perfect and everyone always looks as good at the end which is so important, OCAVS for the perfect shade of lighting, Flowers by Cina for bringing Jenn and my vision to reality xoxoxox, Naples Strings for ceremony and cocktails, Peter/Vive Ent for as always being the epitomy of the perfect dj for many reasons, Luxe Linens for the dining linens/napkins, Wildflower Linens for the overlays, TMMPRO for the beautiful dancefloor and chivaris, and as a surprise to the groom, these cigar guys on the balcony, he loved it!!

And of course, without our ladies and gentlemen and that beautiful Ritz-Carlton Laguna the end result would not be as fabulous!!! xoxoxo

Some of you will see the picture above and immediately know the culture involved with this wedding celebration. Our bride/mother/her side were Persian and our groom/his side were not, but the groom was very happy to have the traditions of the brides culture/background be a big part of their day. Most of the time a station is setup with fruit on it in a very fancy display and this is available to the guests from beginning to end of the reception.

I loved Sherene and her mom, and our groom was pretty aok too, we had a great time pulling the vision together and it really turned out elegant, soft, beautiful.

Thanks to Flowers by Cina for being a great partner/taking words-thoughts and bringing them to an even better reality. To D-Park photo for being wonderful to work with and for the pics here, my fave Persian officiant Shahrzad Ardalan for always doing a beautiful elegant ceremony, Design Visage for beautifying everyone. Naples Strings for the beautiful ceremony music and Monico Decor for the rentals. And of course to my friends/the fabulous team at the Ritz-Carlton for making dreams come true in the way of reality and memories.

Sherene did not want their backs to the guests, which is normal at a Persian ceremony at a sofreh, as the bride and groom look into a mirror and the guests see their reflection which is an important part of the setup/ceremony, so we flipped them so the guests could see their faces and their backdrop was the beautiful Pacific Ocean, so not traditional but pretty fine.